The South Health Campus is one of the leading centers of Regional Anesthesia in Canada in ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia. Our program provides guidance and tuition in all aspects of Regional Anesthesia, Acute Pain Medicine, Transitional Pain Service, as well as cryoneurolysis. Many of our anesthesiologists teach, or have taught ultrasound imaging at national and international regional anesthesia workshops/conferences. We typically support 1-2 fellows per year.

We have a dedicated, five-bay, fully equipped and supported regional block area within the Operating Room Complex, where regional anesthesia modalities are initiated before surgery. We perform approximately 60-80 blocks per week; and manage postoperative pain in patients who have a perineural or epidural catheter, or a complex pain history. We also have an established Home Regional Program, and we perform cryoneurolysis for selected patients.

Program Structure

The Fellowship is structured with equal time allocated to Clinical and Fellowship components.

The Fellowship component is devoted to supervised subspecialty training, research and teaching. Fellows can expect to gain proficiency in single-shot and catheter-based regional anesthetic techniques for upper and lower extremity surgeries; and in addition, to truncal blocks for abdominal and thoracic procedures. Fellows also have opportunity to gain experience in pediatric regional anesthesia at the Alberta Children’s hospital in Calgary, and regional anesthesia for cardiothoracic surgery at the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary. They also have opportunity to visit Guyana as part of the Global Health program that we offer. For those who are interested to reinforce their knowledge in Transitional Pain and chronic pain, there are opportunities to do cryoneurolysis and chronic pain procedures are our affiliated clinics. Regarding the education aspects, fellows contribute to resident education; and participation in the day-to-day management of our pain patients is expected. The initiation and completion of a research project is an integral part of the Fellowship. Guidance with project preparation will be provided. Findings, regardless of completion, are presented at the annual Research Day, which is held in late Fall each year.

The Clinical component incorporates duties expected of the anesthesia staff at the South Health Campus Hospital: anesthesia delivery in the operative setting, provision of outpatient clinic consultations, teaching of medical students and residents. There will be no on-call component.

Candidates are required to have completed specialty training prior to commencement of fellowship, to a level equivalent to Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada certification. Candidates must be eligible for specialist registration with CPSA, either by having FRCPC or by completing a 3-month practice readiness assessment (3 months practice readiness assessment, 9 months with equal clinical and fellowship components as outlined above), and have English language proficiency. Further information for CPSA registration can be found here: https://cpsa.ca/physicians/registration/

To apply, please email your CV together with your personal statement outlining your regional fellowship intent. We also require 3 letters of reference.